Art in the Parks

Through collaborations with a diverse group of arts organizations and artists, Parks bringsto the public both experimental and traditional art in many park locations. Please browse ourlist of current exhibits below, explore our archives of past exhibits or readmore about the Art in the Parks Program.

Public Art Map and Guide

Find out which current exhibits are on display near you, and browse our permanent monument collection.

Search Current and Past Exhibits

2016

Citywide

Mary Mattingly, SwaleJuly 2016 to November 2016Various Locations

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

A mobile, floating food forest, Swale will dock at several piers, beginning in Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx, and then stopping at piers throughout New York City’s harbor for less than one month at a time. During public hours, people may visit Swale and pick fresh raspberries, huckleberries, kales, beets, chard, arugula, leeks, artichokes, and other perennially grown food sources. For more information about programming, hours, and Swale’s current location please visit http://www.swaleny.org/.

LEAP, A View from the Lunch Table: Students Bringing Issues to the TableJune 3, 2016 to August 25, 2016Various Locations

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Students from ten New York City public middle schools, with two schools representing each borough, have transformed school lunchroom tables into personalized canvases and created colorful works of public art that touch upon critical social issues in their community and across the globe. The tables, which have been installed in ten community parks across the five boroughs, are a way of giving young teens the chance to voice their opinions and reach out to the public in hopes of inspiring social change through their art. This exhibition was created by LEAPâΑΑS Public Art Program in cooperation with NYC Parks and marks the largest student exhibition in the history of NYC Parks and the first to span five boroughs. The program included visits with distinguished artists Sebastian Blanck, Christo, Daze, Bradley Hart, Mel Kendrick, Stephen Powers, Orlando Richards, Lorna Simpson, Federico Solmi, and Chat Travieso. Since 1977, LeAp (Learning through an Expanded Art Program) has provided artsâΑΑbased education to over two million students K-12 throughout New York City.

Artworks can be found through September in Seward Park and Riverside Park in Manhattan, Tremont Park and Crotona Park in the Bronx, Washington Park and Fermi Playground in Brooklyn, Evergreen Park and Forest Park (Dry Harbor Playground) in Queens, and Clove Lakes Park and Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten Island.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

This summer, from June 9th through June 19th, the Sing for Hope Pianos return to our city streets. In one of New York City’s most vibrant public art installations, 51 unique artist-designed pianos are placed in parks and public spaces throughout the city’s five boroughs, including 36 on parkland.

Once on the streets, the pianos can be played by anyone passing by, impacting an estimated 1 million New Yorkers and visitors each year. Neighborhood associations and community organizations serve as “piano buddies” and supervise each piano throughout the duration of the project, making sure they are protected from inclement weather. The Sing for Hope Pianos unite the city, as artists from all walks of life create daily spontaneous concerts and neighborhoods come together around the shared gift of music and art. Following the public installation, Sing for Hope will donate all of the 2016 pianos to permanent homes in NYC public schools. For more information and a list of locations visit Sing for Hope’s Pop-Up Pianos website.

Bronx

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Created by Bronx artist Diana Perea, the Bronx Tracks was inspired by French muralist Nelio as well as the unique sounds, movement and cityscape of the Bronx. The mural is a site-specific installation designed to activate the park and to create a more pedestrian-friendly experience along E. 161st Street between the bustling courthouse center at Morris Avenue and the less trafficked three-block stretch to Elton Avenue. A team of young DreamYard artists and an intergenerational team of community volunteers installed the mural, spurring conversation, creativity, and a new favorite destination among community members and groups.

The mural’s abstract forms and vibrant colors reenergize Railroad Park, the adjacent NYCHA Morrisania Air Rights building, and the path to the often-overlooked Metro North Station directly behind it. Perea’s innovative techniques emphasize the beauty of the existing structures, and the mural’s influences by Picasso, Delaunay, Kandinsky, and Malevich can be admired by all who play in and pass by Railroad Park and E. 161st Street.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

This colorful new public installation brings music, solar–powered lights, seating, and community art to an underutilized space in Morrisania. This is the third Boogie Down Booth, designed by artist Chat Travieso. The first booth was installed at Southern Boulevard and Freeman Street, under the 2/5 line, in 2014, and the second was installed in Seabury Park in 2015 and will remain on view through June 24, 2016.

This booth Boogie Down Booth has solar–powered speakers that stream music that originated in the Bronx, including salsa, jazz, Afro–Caribbean, hip–hop, Garifuna, and blues. The playlist, curated by the Bronx Music Heritage Center, both celebrates the rich musical heritage of the borough and masks construction and vehicular traffic noise on the 161st Street corridor. The installation also provides much–needed picnic–style seating and solar–powered lighting to the park, which is located close to a bus stop, Boricua College, and 1,000+ units of housing. The booth also incorporates interactive elements like a community bulletin board and artwork by local artists and students. Community partners including DreamYard, BronxWorks, and Boricua College, who will collaborate on various activities at the booth throughout the year.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

The Art Students League of New York, one of America’s premier art schools, presents the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with NYC Parks that has culminated in the installation of the collaborative sculpture, …and We Breathe, at Van Cortlandt Park. This is the sixth year for the M2M program, which has installed nearly 50 monumental works in NYC parks since 2011. This piece by all seven M2M sculptors celebrates and explores the various aspects of “Air,” this year’s theme for Van Cortlandt Park. This installation was created by artists Aaron Bell, Sheila Berger, James Mikhel Emerson, Tanda Francis, Markus Rudolph Holtby, Shiho Sato, and Sarah Thompson Moore. The group also has works concurrently on view in Riverside South Park in Manhattan.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

Boogie Down Booth, a colorful new public installation bringing Bronx music, solar–powered lights, seating, and community art to the area under the elevated tracks is on view at Seabury park on Southern Boulevard and 174th Street in the Bronx. The second Boogie Down Booth follows last year’s temporary pop–up at Southern Boulevard and Freeman Street, under the 2/5 line.

This new rendition features an updated, linear design from Chat Travieso, designer of the first Booth. Like the previous installation, the Booth provides seating, solar–powered LED lighting, and speakers streaming music from Bronx artists. The playlist, curated by the Bronx Music Heritage Center, covers a variety of genres born in or inspired by the Bronx, including salsa, jazz, Afro–Caribbean, hip–hop, Garifuna, and blues.

New to this booth are interactive elements like a community bulletin board to learn about local events, and a mural wall painted by middle and high school students from East Bronx Academy for the Future and youth from the Children’s Aid Society, who will host community events at the Booth. The installation, which recycles much of the material from the previous Booth, will be open until July 2016.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

The Art Students League of New York, one of America’s premier art schools, presents the Model to Monument Program (M2M), a collaboration with NYC Parks that has culminated in the installation the sculpture, Water, Gift of Life, at Van Cortlandt Park.

In response to this year’s theme of Patterns in Nature, the artists created a sinuous steel twisted sculpture. The fluke of a tail runs down like a rolling wave and culminates to form the head of a water drop. The downward flow of the fish-wave form echoes the landscape of the hill of the Van Cortlandt House Museum, which drops quickly down a Southward hill, and the south-running Tibbett’s Brook through Van Cortlandt Park down to the City.

The shiny stainless-steel sculpture reflects the park in a similar way that water’s surface reflects the surrounding trees. Additionally the sculpture is a nod to the water sources that surrounds the piece–the Nature Center to the North which provides an exploratory, scientific perspective of the parks ecosystems. To the West, the Pool is run with engineered water systems. By contrast, Van Cortland Lake is located to the east and wetlands to the south.

This collaborative installation was created by artists Lee Apt, Caroline Bergonzi, Kate Jansyn, Sukyung Kim, Donat King, Paola Morales, and Ken Shih. The group also has works concurrently on view in Riverside South Park in Manhattan.

Please note: This is a past exhibit that is no longer installed in the park.

Description:

These elegant and graceful peacocks designed in 1920 were intended for a formal garden such as that on the grounds of the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum. The garden was conceived and constructed circa 1916 by the prominent architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich and recently restored in 2013.

Animals were a theme to which Lachaise returned throughout his artistic career. He sculpted peacocks, seagulls; swans, dolphins. The animals he chose to represent were generally peaceful animals. The commissions for his animal works came through his employer, the artist, Paul Manship (1885-1956) or architects with whom he worked, including Welles Bosworth (1868-1966) and Philip Goodwin (1885-1958).

In the case of the short-tailed peacock, John Deering commissioned Lachaise in 1920 to make two sculptural peacocks in stone to sit atop eight decorative spiral columns in the Marine Garden of the home he was building outside of Miami, called Vizcaya. Philip Goodwin commissioned the long-tailed peacock for a fountain on the wall of his mansion on Long Island. In a poetic twist, Goodwin worked for Delano & Aldrich between 1914-1916.